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| "Maria" |
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| Cindy Sherman "Madonna" 1975 |
My self portrait was directly inspired by Cindy Sherman's portrait "Madonna." Cindy Sherman is An American photographer and filmmaker, whose self-portraits became famous for her power to create strong compositions. Sherman wanted for the viewer to create their own narratives as a reaction to the photos that resembled film stills. She created a wide variety of images, all featuring herself as the model but including costumes, body modification, characters and more which make the self portraits distinct from each other. The ideals of Cindy Sherman for her time period interested me, as she says "I like making images that from a distance seem kind of seductive, colorful, luscious and engaging, and then you realize what you're looking at is something totally opposite." Sherman grew up during in the 50's being able to watch television, yet she was not interested in a typical idea of media and beauty.
In Sherman's depiction of Madonna she is wearing the standard white veil but her eyelashes, lips, and horn-like curls are challenging the traditional figure. This image depicts how Sherman stylized her compositions deliberately yet subtly. It also could be referencing the "new woman" of the 1920's whose liberated views of sexuality are the opposite of the biblical Madonna. In the film "Nobody's Here But Me" Sherman mentions her inspiration coming from horror films. As a kid I was interested in reading every scary novel my libraries had available, rather than the typical romance novels all my girl friends enjoyed at that time. I became aware I was enjoying non-stereotypical things for a little girl, and at the same time accepted that about myself at a young age. That mentality grew up with me and led me to have the passion to pursue an artistic career that resulted in graphic design. I felt this similar passion after I watched that documentary about Sherman, because she pursued a path not widely accepted but one that she felt comfortable and confident in.
Another aspect of Sherman's work that I appreciated was her consistency of being her own model. I enjoy when artists deliberately show themselves in their work, it feels more personal to be looking right back at the artist. I always used myself as a model when learning to draw and paint portraits. I preferred to draw myself as I felt more connected to the piece, wanting to pay attention to details. Using myself over and over helped me feel more comfortable in my ability as I was able to see progress in the work. It is nice to use myself as the subject because I know what I want the finished product to look like, therefore I'm creating art that for myself. It is less pressure than trying to making a portrait of someone else and trying to construct a vision that you want them to enjoy. Now I am making myself branch off more into different subjects for portraits after I built that foundation of confidence in myself. I am sure it was easier for Sherman to continuously use herself as the subject because she could take her vision and flow with it without consulting to others. She just transformed into these wild or tame characters not to please anyone but to please herself. In the documentary Sherman states, ""Its hard to describe the way I work because I work so intuitively I don't know what I'm going after until after I've done several shots." This mentality helped me as an artist, to simply not think too hard about what you're creating as it can halt your creative process, rather just let the ideas flow and you can nit pick the details later on.
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